On the Morning of Christ's NativityCompos'd 1629

I

This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing, [ 5 ]That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,Wherwith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-Table, [ 10 ]
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside; and here with us to be,Forsook the Courts of everlasting Day,
And chose with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.

III

Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein [ 15 ]
Afford a present to the Infant God?
Hast thou no vers, no hymn, or solemn strein,
To welcom him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the Suns team untrod,Hath took no print of the approching light, [ 20 ]
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

IV

See how from far upon the Eastern rode
The Star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet:
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; [ 25 ]
Have thou the honour first, thy Lord to greet,And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,
From out his secret Altar toucht with hallow'd fire.

The Hymn

I

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe, [ 30 ]All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her [ 35 ]
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

II

Onely with speeches fair
She woo's the gentle AirTo hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame, [ 40 ]
Pollute with sinfull blame,The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so neer upon her foul deformities.

III

But he her fears to cease, [ 45 ]
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear,
His ready Harbinger,With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, [ 50 ]
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.

IV

No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around:The idle spear and shield were high up hung; [ 55 ]
The hooked Chariot stoodUnstain'd with hostile blood,The Trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sate still with awfull eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. [ 60 ]

V

But peacefull was the nightWherin the Prince of lightHis raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist, [ 65 ]Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

VI

The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fixt in stedfast gaze, [ 70 ]Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,OrLucifer that often warn'd them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow, [ 75 ]Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

VII

And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame, [ 80 ]
As his inferiour flame,The new-enlightn'd world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appearThen his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.

VIII

The Shepherds on the Lawn, [ 85 ]
Or ere the point of dawn,Sate simply chatting in a rustick row;Full little thought they than,
That the mighty PanWas kindly com to live with them below; [ 90 ]
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.

IX

When such musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,As never was by mortall finger strook, [ 95 ]
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,As all their souls in blisfull rapture took:
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close. [ 100 ]

X

Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow roundOf Cynthia's seat, the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don, [ 105 ]And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.

XI

At last surrounds their sight
A Globe of circular light, [ 110 ]That with long beams the shame-fac't night array'd,
The helmed Cherubim
And sworded SeraphimAre seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire, [ 115 ]
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

XII

Such Musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great [ 120 ]
His constellations set,And the well-balanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.

For if such holy Song
Enwrap our fancy long,Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold, [ 135 ]
And speckl'd vanity
Will sicken soon and die,And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould,
And Hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. [ 140 ]

XV

Yea Truth, and Justice then
Will down return to men,Th'enameldArras of the Rainbow wearing,
And Mercy set between,Thron'd in Celestiall sheen, [ 145 ]With radiant feet the tissued clouds down stearing,
And Heav'n as at somfestivall,
Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall.

XVI

But wisest Fate sayes no,
This must not yet be so, [ 150 ]The Babe lies yet in smiling Infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss;So both himself and us to glorifie:
Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep, [ 155 ]
The wakefull trump of doom must thunder through the deep,

XVII

With such a horrid clang
As on mount Sinai rangWhile the red fire, and smouldring clouds out brake:
The aged Earth agast [ 160 ]
With terrour of that blast,Shall from the surface to the center shake,
When at the worlds last session,
The dreadfull Judge in middle Air shall spread his throne.

XVIII

And then at last our bliss [ 165 ]
Full and perfect is,But now begins; for from this happy dayTh' old Dragon under ground,
In straiter limits bound,Not half so far casts his usurped sway, [ 170 ]
And wrath to see his Kingdom fail,Swindges the scaly Horrour of his foulded tail.

XIX

The Oracles are dumm,
No voice or hideous hummRuns through the arched roof in words deceiving. [ 175 ]Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine,With hollow shreik the steep of Delphos leaving.
No nightly trance, or breathed spell,Inspire's the pale-ey'd Priest from the prophetic cell. [ 180 ]

XX

The lonely mountains o're,
And the resounding shore,A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;
From haunted spring and daleEdg'd with poplar pale, [ 185 ]The parting Genius is with sighing sent,
With flowre-inwov'n tresses torn
The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

XXI

In consecrated Earth,
And on the holy Hearth, [ 190 ]The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint,
In Urns, and Altars round,
A drear, and dying soundAffrights the Flamins at their service quaint;
And the chill Marble seems to sweat, [ 195 ]
While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.

And sullenMoloch fled, [ 205 ]
Hath left in shadows dred.His burning Idol all of blackest hue,
In vain with Cymbals ring,
They call the grisly king,In dismall dance about the furnace blue; [ 210 ]
The brutish gods of Nile as fast,Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubishast.

XXIV

Nor is Osiris seen
In Memphian Grove, or Green,Trampling the unshowr'dGrasse with lowings loud: [ 215 ]
Nor can he be at rest
Within his sacred chest,Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud:
In vain with Timbrel'd Anthems dark
The sable-stoled Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark. [ 220 ]

So when the Sun in bed,Curtain'd with cloudy red, [ 230 ]Pillows his chin upon an Orient wave.
The flocking shadows pale
Troop to th'infernall jail,Each fetter'd Ghost slips to his severall grave,
And the yellow-skirted Fayes [ 235 ]
Fly after the Night-steeds, leaving their Moon-lov'd maze.

XXVII

But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.Time is our tedious Song should here have ending,Heav'ns youngest-teemed Star [ 240 ]
Hath fixt her polisht Car,Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending.
And all about the Courtly Stable,
Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable.